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Gold Star

Thorsten Kaye (Zach) is this
issue's outstanding performer

Soaps In Depth

Published March 9, 2009

A
large part of the allure where ALL MY CHILDREN'S Zach is concerned
likes
in his steadfast devotion to his wife: Because Zach loves Kendall, we
love
Zach. But revelations of the past few months have made it
difficult
to understand how such a devoted man could have acted in ways
guaranteed
to hurt the one person he's repeatedly moved mountains to
protect.
Portrayer Thorsten Kaye deserves a heap of credit for the blend of
guilt
and honesty he brought to the scene in which Zach apologized to his
newly-awakened
wife for having father Bianca's baby.

Finally, The Truth
We'd watched Zach go from despair over Kendall's near-death to
elation
at the prospect of bringing her home, but we hadn't seen many quiet
moments
between the pair since she'd woken up. So when the kiddies
and houesguests
were upstairs, Zach moved closer to his wife on the couch and began the
conversation neither wanted to have. "I want to apologize to
you
for not telling you earlier what I did for Bianca and Reese," he said,
gently playing with her knee and trying hard to look her in the
eye.
"I didn't ask you because I didn't want you to say no, because if you
had
said no, I would've gone through with it anyway." Disheveled,
the
strain of her recent absence still showing on his weary face, Zach
continued.
"Bianca asked me, and of course I couldn't say yes to that because of
us
and where we were. And then... " Kaye exhaled the
words in
a rush of shame regarding sins from the past. "I had
to. I
had to say yes because of what my brother did to her."

But Is It The Whole Truth?
Michael's crime against Bianca was undeniably horrible, but
Kendall
wasn't going to let that -- or the fact that Zach was looking at her
like
a kicked bulldog -- get in the way of what was really wrong.
She
prodded him to admit that he fathered Gabrielle as revenge for her
having
slept with Aidan. He didn't deny it, and the hard silence
hung between
them for a moment. "I'm sorry," he finally said, voice low,
staring
off to the side as tears began to gather. "I'm sorry I hurt
you."
It was a rough beat in the scene, and Kaye didn't shy away.
Wanting
to move on, Zach reassuringly told his wife that because Reese and
Bianca
were family, "We'll work it out." But post-coma Kendall does
not
play, and Zach's surprise was palpable when whe demanded he get rid of
the women. Oh yeah, Zach, there's a new sheriff in town.

But Kaye excels at the uncomfortable moments in modern family
life,
so Kaye easily earned kudos -- with the promise of more to come!